NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Trump Administration has said it is ready to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia, and it wants a federal judge to dissolve her order barring that from happening.
In court filings, attorneys for the government indicated that Liberia's government remains willing to accept Abrego Garcia and that ICE could arrange a plane to send him there in around five days. They say they're ready to remove Abrego Garcia "in an extremely expeditious manner" once U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis lifts her order blocking Abrego Garcia's deportation.
Xinis blocked the Department of Homeland Security from deporting Abrego Garcia, after several hearings where she felt the government could not properly articulate a plan and why they were sending this man to a country he's never seen.
The government's attorneys have asked Xinis to rule on their motion by April 17.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys in Nashville, however, have said this is another example of the government trying to make an example out of someone who dared challenge their deportation.
They say Abrego Garcia has agreed to be deported to a Spanish-speaking country like Costa Rica, but his attorneys say DHS hasn't even been in contact with that country.
Judge Xinis said at the time, "If the government has not done anything to effectuate the one place he says he'll go and the one place they say will take him, how can I find you're really pursuing this?"
Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported by the Trump Administration to El Salvador last year. He was ordered to be returned, then charged with human smuggling in Tennessee.
The 30-year-old, married father, had been locked up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since early this summer when he pleaded not guilty and was released from a Tennessee jail pending trial on two human smuggling charges from 2022.
His attorneys argued that those charges were made as an act of revenge after the government was ordered to bring him back to the U.S.
After his release in Tennessee, Abrego Garcia was escorted to Maryland, where he reported to the Department of Homeland Security as required. There, he was immediately taken into custody and sent to an ICE facility.
Judge Xinis wrote in her order that the government has "never produced evidence of a removal order for Abrego Garcia." She added that "when Abrego Garcia was first wrongly expelled to El Salvador, the Court struggled to understand the legal authority for even seizing him in the first place."
Abrego Garcia had been wrongfully deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador against a judge's order from 2019. The ruling was a stay on deportation to El Salvador, meaning Abrego Garcia could be deported anywhere except that country.
After the U.S. Supreme Court forced the Trump Administration to admit they wrongfully deported Abrego Garcia and facilitate his return, the government resurrected the traffic stop as the centerpiece of their smuggling charges, according to Abrego Garcia's attorneys.
He was sent back to Nashville, where he was almost immediately placed in handcuffs and charged with the human smuggling charges.
For months, DHS officials sent representatives to Maryland courts arguing they had legal authority to deport Abrego Garcia. They offered to send him to several African countries, but those nations wrote back saying they never agreed to accept someone the U.S. government had labeled a dangerous gang member.
Abrego Garcia is currently out on bond in Maryland while he waits for a ruling in Nashville over whether the court will drop his charges.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email Levi Ismail at Levi.Ismail@newschannel5.com.
Austin Pollack brings us an update on a remarkable young man facing great odds, and his family has one simple request: pray for Cole. I believe in the power of prayer and hope you'll join me in lifting up Cole and his family.
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